Very well done Brad,
That is exactly what I am talking about with fundamentalists whether in the
Pentagon or in the Pulpit. Unless you can meet them on their own ground,
they will just go the way of all fanactics and end up in real war like in
Nigeria.
REH
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brad McCormick, Ed.D." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Selma Singer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "Ray Evans Harrell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Harry Pollard"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Mantle, Rosalyn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
"Anthony, David" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Bradskey, Teresa"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Cole, Karen Watters"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Dawn Anthony" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Downs ,
Jason" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Dunn, Darcy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "H, Joan"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "harrell, jane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Krueger,
Jack A." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Sagowa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Sleigh,
Ben and Roz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Watters, Valorie" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
"futurework" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, December 01, 2002 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: Whining ("Stop it! And say: 'Thank you'! .... ) + The Invisible
Hand
> Selma Singer wrote:
> >
> > I haven't been reading too many of these very carefully so just delete
this
> > if it has been mentioned before, but has anyone mentioned (in the
context of
> > this invisible hand and free competition, etc.)corporate price-fixing,
> > government bail-outs of failing corporations,etc.etc.? How do these
things
> > fit in this'free', 'competitive' market'? do these things and the myriad
of
> > other dynamics like them not interfere with the 'free', 'competitive'
part
> > that is supposed to control this invisible hand?
> [snip]
>
> Not in disagreement, but elaboration:
>
> One of the things I learned from the new book about Jack Boyd
> (_Boyd: The fighter pilot who changed the art of war_) was
> that the way Boyd and the other "reformers" went about
> demolishing the Pentagon's sacred cows was not just to
> do their homework VERY THOROUGHLY, but, also:
>
> (1) Use the adversary's data whenever they have any
> real data, and:
>
> (2) Whenever there is a margin of error, always use the
> end of the range that is most favorable to the adversary.
>
> Then you help them dig themselves into a deeper hole faster
> and more easily for all to see.
>
> I've always believed this. Of course price-fixing
> etc. is important in reality, but it is *interesting*
> only if it is an *inevitable* part of the *essence*
> of capitalism in its most plausible ways of elaborating
> itself. Otherwise it becomes a red herring for
> George Bush to remonstrate that we have to purge the
> barrel of the few rotten apples that threaten to
> upset the applecart....
>
> The goal is
> to show how the invisible hand cuts off its
> own circulation (turnd gangrenous, etc.). Unfortunately,
> as Harry keeps pointing out to us, governments and others
> keep restraining the invisible hand from hurting itself,
> both for practical reasons, but also just
> out of spite to keep making sure Marx stays wrong.
>
> --
>
> And, yes, Harry, I did read what you wrote about the
> market and about trade, and I responded,
> basically to the effect that
> I think your idea of the market is noble but has
> nothing to do with economics. Rather it relates to
> relations within small peer groups (personal relations).
> So it *would* have to do with economics in a small
> 18th century colonial village with some farmers,
> a blacksmith, a baker (could such a small community
> support even one baker?), a school teacher -- and,
> ah, yes! -- a "Divine". But that's not the kind of
> place even the man in the gray flannel suit
> lived in, much less we denizens of the new Global
> Pillage (are we thus ex officio
> members of the coalition of the willing?)....
>
> Let me try the question again: What does what you,
> Harry, call "trade" hae to do with the only traders
> who(sic) matter these days: Supranational Legal
> Fictions? When was the last time you had a
> trade relation with Microsoft Corp. or Toyota Corp. or even
> your local supermarket (I presume you do not
> have an employer but rather that you are
> an independent professional, who lives from
> the only fully human form of compensation: honoraria,
> rather than either unearned income [which hurts
> others] or wages [which hurt oneself])?
>
> Is the invisible hand something "on the human scale"?
> The only person I know of who studied such a
> thing in our social world was Erving Goffman, whose
> ideas I think can fairly be summed up by what I
> call Goffman's First Law:
>
> Where there's a system, there's a way to work it.
>
> (Like in the story of the man who left the factory
> every evening pushing an empty wheelbarrow, and the
> security guard would carefully inspect the wheelbarrow
> for anything the man might be trying to steal from
> the factory but the wheelbarrow was empty so the
> guard would wave the man through, and thus did the
> man steal wheelbarrows.)
>
> Me thinks that the invisible hand of human-scale
> trade operates, in our world, mainly "off the books" --
> below the radar of the IRS et al. I think it also
> operates in such places as
> those parts of Northern Pakistan where
> the US cannot find Osama bin Laden but AK-47s
> and Stinger missiles are offered for sale in the marketplace.
>
> \brad mccormick
>
> --
> Let your light so shine before men,
> that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
>
> Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
>
> <![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
